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- Go back to Obsidian Sync and set the selective sync to the same folders I’m synchronizing now using Syncthing-Fork.
- Replace the Time Machine backup I currently use at home with something like Carbon Copy Cloner.
- Since using different sync solutions may cause a conflict, I also need to establish some sort of mechanism that will copy that backup to the computer I have at my office located in a different part of the city. Maybe I can even do this with Syncthing for Mac, which is still a Foundation official app.
- Your Data is Yours
- Your Data is Protected
- Your Data is Portable
- Computer: Folders
- Evernote: Notebooks
- Real World: Boxes
- Obsidian: Folders
- Definition of “In Progress”: An item is considered “in progress” the moment it enters the user’s active thought sphere. This status applies across the entire execution cycle: from the earliest stage of conceptualization and planning (even without a written structure) to the final phase of content creation. For example, a note for a video script can start as basic as a rough title and remain “in progress” until the work is formally concluded (e.g., the video is published) or the idea is completely abandoned.
- Content vs. Container Movement: To maintain the structural integrity for future work (e.g., future video projects), the default action is to move only the content (e.g., the completed script note) to a corresponding Container structure on the Timeline shelf, rather than moving the entire project folder. This allows for the movement of specific content from one status to another while keeping the main project structure ready for future reuse.
- Retiring Containers: There are three scenarios where the entire Container should be retired from the Action or Static shelves and moved to the Timeline:
- The activity is definitively abandoned and will not be revisited.
- The activity was a one-time task (e.g., a short, self-contained project) for which the organizational structure is no longer needed.
- The broader category of activity it represents is no longer active or relevant (e.g., ceasing video production or client consulting).
- Retiring Containers: There are three scenarios where the entire Container should be retired from the Action or Static shelves and moved to the Timeline:
- The Roles of the Timeline: Content in the Timeline is never discarded; it retains critical value by fulfilling several roles:
- Long-Term Reference: It serves as a comprehensive knowledge base or memory, allowing users to reference old data, documents, or images to connect past activities and inform current work.
- Reuse: It allows for the retrieval and reactivation of past projects. If a client returns, their Container can be located and moved back to the Action shelf for immediate reuse.
- Historical Archive: It securely stores all information that may never be consulted again. By defaulting all completed content here, the risk of data loss or uncertainty is minimized.
- Purpose: Static Containers hold frequently used or constantly consulted support materials. Examples include a Knowledge Base, family documents, or essential departmental manuals and templates.
- Flow: Content on the Static shelf must maintain utility. If an asset (like an expired document) ceases to be frequently used or current, it is moved to the Timeline for long-term storage, and the updated or new asset is placed on the Static shelf.
- Instant Status and Context: By linking the status (Action, Static, or Timeline) directly to the information (the Container), the system ensures that the context required to understand an activity is always immediately available alongside its current state. There is no need to reference a separate task list to know what a project is about or where it stands.
- Streamlined Flow: The act of moving content between these three defined states transforms organization from a cognitive burden into a simple, natural reflection of the work lifecycle (e.g., in-progress, support, or complete).
Simplifying my new Obsidian Sync strategy
It may be possible to simplify my new Obsidian Sync strategy with a little help from my Timeline System containers and the Selective Sync feature.
I was here checking some numbers, and the Plus plan can handle all the content from my Action and Static Containers. The official Syncthing app will take care of the Timeline, synchronizing it between my two computers—home and office.
I may still explore replacing the Time Machine backup with Carbon Copy Cloner, but that is not entirely necessary now, as separating what each system syncs should prevent conflicts. At least, I think so. ðŸ¤
Syncthing drama and my new Obsidian Sync strategy
EN|PT
If you are not following the Syncthing-Fork drama, which, by the way, is not an official Syncthing Foundation app, here’s the TL;DR: the person who was maintaining the Android app is not in charge of it anymore, and it looks like people don’t know much about the new person, which is raising concerns about security.
I’m not familiar with the development history or many of the usernames mentioned in the discussion, so I’m not adding any more information to this post to avoid complicating things even further. If you’d like to learn more about the situation, there’s a topic about it on the Syncthing forum, which started on November 13th and is still going.
My plan for this post is to share with you what I’ll be doing about this situation.
Since I’m not technically capable of making sure everything is okay with the code of potential future updates, I turned off the Play Store auto-updates while I was waiting for things to calm down. That also gave me some time to think about what I should do.
What I’m worried about is the fact that Syncthing has to have access to all the files on the device, and to add insult to injury, the Syncthing-Fork app is not an official Syncthing Foundation app.
I was an Obsidian Sync user in the past and moved to Syncthing because of the number of files and the backup system I created. However, a while ago, my vault got so large that I had to set up Syncthing-Fork to sync just a few folders with my phone. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but that may be the solution to my problems. I still need to ensure technical viability, but here’s my plan:
I was an Obsidian Sync user in the past and moved to Syncthing because of the number of files and the backup system I created. However, a while ago, my vault got so large that I had to set up Syncthing-Fork to sync just a few folders with my phone. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but that may be the solution to my problems. I still need to ensure technical viability, but here’s my plan:
I was a Carbon Copy Cloner user in the past, but that was a long time ago. So, the first step of this journey is to download the trial version and learn what I can do with it.
Talking about #openweb, I see more and more news outlets using what I’m calling a “free paywall.” Many are requiring us to create an account to access free content.
I understand that we all have bills to pay, even corporations, and there’s probably a commercial strategy there. But in contrast, #fakenews is free, open, and shared by algorithms to exhaustion.
In the end, journalism is getting more hidden and exclusive every day, while fake news remains widely available.
Even though I’m using #Bases for almost everything on my #Obsidian Vault, the Map View plugin is still my go-to for plotting my notes on a map. This is especially true after the recent upgrades that brought us paths.
Maybe starting with small kindnesses, we'll change the world a bit
Every time I go for a walk with my dog, especially at night, I can clearly see that people are more excited for Christmas this year. At least where I live, there are more lights, wreaths, and all sorts of decorations compared to the previous years, plus big inflatable Santa Claus figures on many balconies 😊. That was not a thing in the past!
My neighbor even wrapped the main door as a present. So cool! Not to mention that after many, many years, we have a new Christmas tree at the entrance of our building, along with more decoration than usual.
I’m not a Christmas person, but I always enjoy the contagious aspect of the lights and other decorations. Anyway, a few days ago I replaced my trusty coffee mug with the cup my wife got me last December.
I know, the world is super crazy, as we haven’t seen for a long time. But maybe if all of us do a little to improve it a bit, we may be able to build up from there. What about we start by being kind to others? Even a simple “thank you” can change a person’s day.
Merry Christmas! 🎄
My website is a small version of my Obsidian Vault
After some back and forth between Micro.blog and Obsidian Publish, I’m finally finding some peace. Since March 2025, when I decided to go back to Micro.blog, I’ve been building a smaller and public version of my Obsidian Vault.
I believe I thought Publish was the answer to that idea because everything was already in Obsidian, but there are so many pieces missing: from a reliable RSS feed to JavaScript and other web tools.
Every single post and page on my site was and still is an Obsidian note, which I uploaded using Publish in the past and the Micro.publish plugin now. But going back to a ‘normal site’ opened up so many possibilities for things I always wanted to have on my site.
For example, the Library, which I think turned out to be a beautiful page with the thumbnails of books I read, is a representation of a collection of posts about the books. And that also works in my Obsidian Vault using Bases. I started with just a few, but I keep adding new ones all the time.
More recently, I created the Map with pins linked to posts about each city. It was created on top of tags that are converted into categories when Micro.publish sends the note to the site. Again, the tags also work on my Vault, but, of course, there are many more notes there. And, similar to the Library, for now, there are just a few cities on the website. But I’ll keep uploading new posts.
One thing Micro.blog has that I love is the Photos page. It’s automatically built based on images from posts, but I kept it hidden since March because it was a bit messy.
The mechanism of the page is pretty clever. Only .jpg files are added to the grid. So, I use .png files in all my how-to posts. But because of how I imported the posts from Obsidian Publish, everything was converted to .jpg, and I was not happy with that mess, so I decided to hide the page. I finally finished organizing that, and the page is now public.
And just like the Library and the Map, I use Bases filters in Obsidian to display my journal pictures. Some of those are the same photos you can now see on the public Photos page.
Another thing I could never do using Obsidian Publish was to create a system that would automatically show posts in Portuguese for visitors from Brazil and Portugal and in English for the rest of the world.
If I’m being honest, that was something I was always afraid of, thinking it would affect how Google and other search engines index the site. That’s why I never put too much energy into joining the two sites and domain names previously. To my surprise, though, there are now more visitors than the sum of the separate sites I had before. That’s something I would never have guessed.
In conclusion, a site is so much cooler to build than a social media page.
My next phone will definitely be a Fairphone, but since my Pixel 7 is still working perfectly fine, I have no idea when that will happen. On the other hand, the earpads of my current Bluetooth headphones are in terrible condition. One even fell off, but I refuse to create e-waste by buying another one just to see the same thing happen again.
The image below from Fairphone’s website sold me. The new Fairbuds XL not only look awesome, but we can buy spare parts. Even the battery is replaceable! Take note of that, Index 1.
It looks like I just found my Christmas gift.
Is this WhatsApp AI antitrust probe missing the core privacy threat?
I’m not an AI specialist nor a WhatsApp user, but antitrust looks to me like the least of the problems here.
“Meta to face competition probe over AI use in WhatsApp, Ribera confirms.” —Euractiv
If there’s an AI feature working inside WhatsApp, isn’t it reasonable to assume that at least parts of the conversation are leaving the app? After all, it has to be analyzed by a model sitting in a server somewhere, undermining the end-to-end encryption Meta is constantly bragging about?
And whatever Meta is claiming to do to keep the conversations encrypted will never convince me. If history can tell us something about this company, it is how irresponsible they are with users' data.
Yes, I know most people will never visit my site, but I’m always adjusting small things here and there as a gardener who takes great care of his plants simply because he loves them.
Just found out that, of the 364 GB of disk space that I am currently using on my Mac, 101 GB is dedicated to my #Obsidian vault. Or, 109 GB if I count the vaults I use to record my YouTube videos.
iPhone market share is much smaller than I thought
I found the Hey there! You are using WhatsApp: Enumerating Three Billion Accounts for Security and Privacy a fascinating read. Unfortunately, it confirmed once more my perception of how Meta couldn’t care less about users' personal information. How is it possible that a single server could download all that data? Unbelievable!
Because of my love for numbers and graphs, I also spent a lot of time on the ones in the paper that, by the way, go way beyond WhatsApp. For example, the one below has to be the best representation so far of the Android-iPhone market share. I’m not a statistician, but I believe a 3.5-billion sample can generate a pretty accurate representation of reality.
To be completely honest, I thought Apple had a bigger market share in both the US and Europe, and it would be cool to see how things changed in a year or two. Meta said they patched the data downloading issue, but given their history of data leaking, I’d say there’s a good chance we’ll be able to see an updated graph in the near future.
Steppenwolf
It’s been so long since I first read Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf—back when I was twenty-something—that it feels like I’m encountering it for the very first time. But even barely remembering anything, my subconscious was probably doing its thing, because I’m still at 60% on Caliban’s War—yet for a while now, I’ve been fighting a constant urge to begin following those wolf’s steps one more time.
I couldn’t help myself anymore and started reading it today. Wow! One memory it immediately brought back was about how deep Hesse goes into our troubled human minds—essentially the polar opposite of the vastness of The Expanse. What a contrast! Let’s go!
Just a few weeks after the AWS issues, Cloudflare reminded us, yet again, of how centralization can make the web break so easily.
I'm not taking my chances anymore. From Apple II to Obsidian—My digital memories now stay local.
I can see how appealing something like the Pixel Journal can be to many people. It’s super convenient and will probably be connected to every single Google service—even Gemini—at some point. But just like the iPhone counterpart, in my opinion, it’s yet another way to imprison users in their platforms.
Pixel Journal now available for the Pixel 8 and 9 series. 9to5Google
I’ve lost just about all my digital notes from before 2008 because of how unreliable backup solutions were and the many times I switched to a different system (Apple II, DOS, Windows, and Mac) and software (WordStar, Word, etc.).
Even many of my posts online, which started as static HTML and then moved to proprietary platforms, were lost several times along the way. Thankfully, I could recover some of them by digging through the Internet Archive, but that’s far from ideal.
In 2008 I started using Evernote, which from the very beginning had something called the 3 Laws Of Data Protection:
The “Portable” part is technically true, and I could move all my notes to Obsidian last year, but it’s not as straightforward as they want you to believe. Anyway, I learned my lesson with the process and decided that my precious memories need better care.
I’m not saying Obsidian is for everyone or that it is the best solution, but having my memories in Markdown format and locally saved first gives me an immense peace of mind. I’m not taking my chances anymore; even my blog posts start as Markdown notes and are locally preserved in that format.
I'm delighted with my library in an Obsidian Bases table
There are some posts on my blog about books I’ve read, and, of course, their notes in Obsidian are categorized with properties, making it pretty easy to create a super-cool Bases table. The one below is one of the views of my Blog.base file, created by filtering notes with the type:Blog and tag:Books properties.
I enjoyed this aesthetic so much that I created a similar view for the Library page on my website. Of course, they are organized in reverse chronological order, and even with only nine books, it’s easy to see how my reading choices changed in 2025.
I remember saying to many friends and family members a few times that I needed a pause from the real world, as it is too crazy to bear. Maybe that’s why I’m reading a lot of fiction this year.
Anyway, because this represents just a tiny fraction of the books I’ve already read, I can’t stop thinking about how cool it would be to have my entire collection displayed like this.
There’s no point in waiting anymore. GoatCounter stats provide me with all the information I need, and I just removed the Google Analytics code from my website. I’m proud of one more small step, as I’m no longer contributing to the tracking and spying done by big corporations.
The Timeline System: A Unified Framework for Information and Activity Management
Author: Vladimir Campos
Date: November 10, 2025
Abstract
The Timeline System can be used for managing digital and physical assets by structuring information based on activity status. At its core are Information Containers (or Containers), which define three distinct operational states—Action, Static, and Timeline. This structure is designed to manage content flow, reduce cognitive load, and unify task management with both active information and retained knowledge. This paper outlines the system’s structure, mechanism, and practical application.
pt: Timeline System: Uma Estrutura Unificada para Gerenciamento de Informações e Atividades
1. Introduction: The Container Metaphor
The Timeline System presents a low-friction methodology for managing information based on activity status. At its core are Information Containers (or simply Containers)—virtual spaces that hold pieces of information related to the same activity, topic, or project.
The system itself is defined by three distinct operational states: Action, Static, and Timeline.
To simplify understanding, this paper employs the vertical organization metaphor. Imagine three shelves and cardboard boxes to universally illustrate the movement of content. It is important to note, though, that these conceptual tools are purely descriptive, as the actual storage mechanism varies widely across digital applications (e.g., folders, notebooks, or boards).
2. System Architecture: The Three Container Types
The Timeline System defines three primary Container types, each corresponding to a distinct status in the lifecycle of an activity or knowledge asset:
| Container Type | Status | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Action | In Progress/Active | Ongoing activities, projects, and immediate work in progress. |
| Static | Support/Reference | Short-term support and frequently referenced materials necessary for daily operations. |
| Timeline | Complete/Historical | Completed activities or long-term support materials. |
Central to the Timeline System is the act of moving notes or folders between Containers to indicate a change in status. This mechanism reduces friction and leverages visual cues for activity tracking, redefining digital organization by merging time awareness, task management, and information structuring.
Examples of how the Containers are represented across various applications:
3. How it Works: The Shelf Analogy
The system can be visualized as a structure with three shelves. By moving an Information Container (or content within it) from one shelf to another, this signals a change in the status of the related activity.
3.1. Action (The Top Shelf)
The top shelf is the working surface. It holds the Action Containers—the boxes in use and the active work in progress.
3.2. Timeline (The Bottom Shelf)
The bottom shelf serves as the historical record. Once work is finished in the Action Container, its content is moved to the Timeline.
3.3. Static (The Middle Shelf)
The middle shelf, positioned between Action and Timeline, is the Static shelf. It houses Static Containers—assets that assist in day-to-day operations but are not necessarily tied to a specific project milestone. Extending the desk analogy, if the Action shelf represents the active working surface, the Static shelf can be likened to the drawers beneath, where frequently accessed reference and support materials are kept.
4. Conclusion
The Timeline System offers a robust and adaptable framework by unifying activity control and information organization. Unlike systems that separate task management from knowledge storage, the Timeline System treats the Information Container itself as the fundamental unit of work.
This unification delivers two advantages:
By clearly defining status through the Action, Static, and Timeline Container types, the system provides a visual and cognitive advantage, successfully merging time awareness and information structuring into a single, cohesive methodology.
I needed a way to easily carry my #Pi Zero, along with all its cables and connectors, back and forth between home and the studio. To solve this, I decided to build a mount using an acrylic board in true MacGyver style 🤓. Now I can just throw it in my backpack and start learning #Python and getting familiar with #Linux wherever I am.
I dubbed this one myself with my real voice. No AI involved. If it doesn’t start in English, you can switch to it using the settings/language selector (gear icon âš™ at the bottom of the video player).
I’ve been using the Vivaldi browser for a few weeks, and overall, I’m pretty happy with the experience. Among its many interesting features, there’s a tracker-blocking feature, which made me aware of how much tracking Google is doing on my visitors because of the Analytics code I added to my site.
Of course I knew that was a thing, but seeing the numbers was a bit shocking, especially because the stats Vivaldi shows me are only counting my visits to my website. So, I decided to do my part and am now trying GoatCounter, which, in their words, “doesn’t track users with unique identifiers” and “identifies unique visits without cookies or persistently storing any personal data.”
I’ll be testing it for a few weeks, and if I’m happy with the results, I’ll remove the Google Analytics code from my site.